The Department of Health and Social Care’s supervised toothbrushing scheme has reached a milestone of six million toothbrushes and toothpastes delivered in its first year. To build on that rollout, fitness coach and author Joe Wicks will front a new Brush With Us campaign designed to help families establish and maintain brushing habits at home.
The Brush With Us campaign aims to reinforce the twice-daily, two-minute brushing message taught during supervised sessions in schools and early-years settings. Joe Wicks said that, as a parent, he understands busy family routines and that setting a simple habit like brushing for two minutes twice a day can make a difference to children’s health and confidence. He framed children’s oral health as part of wider wellbeing and said early habit-building can set children up for healthier futures.
The supervised toothbrushing programme supplies toothbrushes and toothpaste to schools and early-years settings and offers organised, supervised sessions where children practice brushing under guidance. The article reports six million products delivered in the scheme’s first year, though it does not detail the exact split between toothbrushes and toothpaste or the number of settings reached.
The Brush With Us campaign has received positive responses from several parts of the dental community. Neil Carmichael, executive chair of the Association of Dental Groups (ADG), welcomed the initiative and said efforts like this are steps toward helping children adopt habits that prevent tooth decay. The British Dental Association (BDA) described supervised brushing as a “winning formula” and said it is a tried-and-tested policy that saves the NHS more than it costs to deliver.
Colgate-Palmolive has committed additional support to the programme, pledging to donate more than 23 million products over five years to help facilitate delivery of supervised brushing. Ricardo Cardenas, senior marketing director at Colgate-Palmolive, said the scheme is making a real impact in preventing tooth decay and that the company wants all children to be equipped with education and tools to improve oral health.
Despite the positive reception, the campaign comes amid ongoing concerns about access to dental care and uneven uptake of preventative programmes. BDA chair Eddie Crouch welcomed the government’s approach but warned that take-up of supervised brushing has been low in some areas. He urged the government to “go further and faster to restore access to care,” arguing that preventive help is needed before problems escalate into emergencies.
The article cites NHS England data published in September showing that tooth extractions remain the most common reason for hospital admissions among five- to nine-year-olds. Eddie Crouch linked these figures to what he described as a lack of political will to fix NHS dentistry, suggesting that prevention alone will not solve the issue while access remains constrained.
ADG executive chair Neil Carmichael pointed to workforce challenges as part of the context for improving children’s oral health. He referenced proposed measures intended to increase workforce capacity, including expanding routes for international dentists through the Overseas Registration Examination and creating additional dental school places. The article notes hopes that such measures will help children’s oral health “turn a corner,” but it does not provide timelines or specific targets for those workforce expansions.
Supervised toothbrushing programmes aim to reduce tooth decay in early childhood, which in turn can reduce the need for hospital-based extractions and other urgent care. By combining in-school supervised sessions with a public-facing campaign, the government intends to link institutional prevention with everyday family routines. The involvement of a public figure like Joe Wicks is intended to raise the profile of the brushing message and encourage wider parental engagement.
Experts quoted in the article argue prevention is cost-saving for the NHS and beneficial for children’s confidence and general wellbeing. The financial and product support from Colgate-Palmolive—more than 23 million items pledged over five years—adds private-sector resources to the public initiative, though the article does not specify how those products will be distributed across regions or which age groups will be prioritised.
The source did not provide detailed breakdowns of the six million items delivered (for example, exact quantities of toothbrushes versus toothpaste), nor did it report the number of schools or early-years settings reached. The article also did not include specific targets, timelines, or evaluation metrics for the Brush With Us campaign, and it did not report projected outcomes tied to the Colgate-Palmolive product donations. Details on how the campaign will address areas with low uptake or how workforce changes will be implemented and assessed were not provided.
According to the article, the Brush With Us campaign represents the next phase of activity to support supervised toothbrushing, using a high-profile ambassador to encourage family-level behaviour change. Stakeholders have signalled that success will depend not just on product distribution and promotional activity but also on improved access to dental services and addressing workforce shortages.
Practically, the article suggests several linked priorities: increasing uptake of supervised brushing in areas where it has been low; scaling workforce capacity through the Overseas Registration Examination route and additional dental school places; and ensuring donated products are delivered to the children and settings that need them most. The source did not report government timelines or monitoring plans for these steps, so further reporting will be needed to track progress, uptake data, regional coverage, and any measured impact on child dental hospital admissions.
For now, the supervised toothbrushing programme marks a notable distribution milestone—six million toothbrushes and toothpastes delivered in its first year—and the Brush With Us campaign will seek to convert that reach into improved daily habits at home, backed by public and private-sector partners and promoted by Joe Wicks.
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